Rethinking Market Share: A Smarter Framework for Building Products Growth
This article is part of a five-part series unpacking the 4 core growth paths outlined in this article: Market Penetration, Market Share Shift, Market Expansion, and TAM Growth. Each article explores when to use each lever, how to execute, and the role marketing plays in making it work.
Every so often, I hear a familiar ambition from a mid-market manufacturer:
“We want to double our market share.”
When market share is the goal, clarity is the multiplier.
It’s a powerful statement, and one that often fuels strategic planning, investor decks, and sales team motivation. But behind that bold goal lies an equally important question:
What kind of growth are we really targeting when we talk about “market share”?
As leaders, we use market share as shorthand for success. But it can mean very different things depending on the context:
Are we talking about winning head-to-head bids?
Driving spec-in rates?
Expanding to new geographies?
Or increasing brand pull with our channel?
To make that goal actionable, we need to unpack what “market share” actually includes and how to align teams around the right growth levers.
Market Share vs. Market Penetration: A Useful Distinction
Let’s start with some shared language:
Market Share is your slice of the total revenue pie in a given category or region. If the category is $1B and you generate $80M in sales, your share is 8%.
Market Penetration is your reach within the potential buyers you could be serving. If there are 5,000 eligible dealers and you’re in 1,000 of them, your penetration is 20%.
Both are essential metrics, but they tell different stories. One reflects competitive performance. The other reflects access and reach.
When market share ambitions feel vague, it’s often because we’ve blurred the lines between these two ideas. But the more clearly we define them, the more strategically we can grow.
4 Growth Paths Behind “Market Share” Ambitions
To help leadership teams translate bold goals into focused execution, I often use this four-part growth framework:
1. Market Penetration
Deepening your presence within the customers and markets you already target.
Increase dealer stocking rates
Improve spec-in percentages
Win first-time buyers in existing verticals
Simpson Strong-Tie deepened engagement with existing customers through field support, training, and stocking programs.
Simpson didn’t chase market share through aggressive expansion. Instead, they invested in field reps, contractor education, and stocking incentives, ensuring their core structural connectors were both preferred and available on every job site. By making it easier for dealers and framers to specify and stock their SKUs, they increased share of wallet within their existing customer base.
The result was high brand loyalty in the pro segment, with market penetration that outpaces competitors despite pricing pressure. The brand has become default in its category.
2. Market Share Shift
Winning more often in direct competition with others in your category.
Improve win/loss ratios
Differentiate through performance, lead times, or value-add
Take share from incumbents in known project bids
LP Building Solutions converted competitive share in siding through focused repositioning and installer conversion.
LP rebranded its SmartSide product line to go directly after fiber cement competitors, particularly James Hardie. They trained contractors on installation speed advantages, equipped channel partners with side-by-side comparison tools, and sharpened messaging around durability and workability.
LP gained significant share in the siding category, not by expanding the market, but by winning head-to-head in the consideration set where Hardie previously dominated.
3. Market Expansion
Reaching new customers by entering new geographies, verticals, or channels.
Launch in new regions or market tiers
Expand distribution partnerships
Add adjacent SKUs or categories
Trex expanded from core decking into railings, lighting, and cladding.
Trex dominated composite decking and then systematically expanded its product offering into adjacent outdoor categories (rails, lighting, fencing, and façade products) while building out channel presence through big box and pro dealer networks.
Trex increased revenue per project and diversified its exposure across categories, driving growth by entering new product lines and customer budgets without diluting the brand’s outdoor living leadership.
4. TAM Growth (Total Addressable Market)
Broadening what “the market” means for your products.
Develop new use cases
Influence building codes/specs
Introduce innovations that redefine buyer expectations
Andersen Windows reframed its product value beyond energy efficiency into smart home integration and indoor air quality.
Andersen invested in R&D and marketing to shift the narrative around windows, from a commodity building envelope product to an element of well-being, sustainability, and intelligent control. This included acquisitions (like Fenetres MQ) and new offerings (like smart sensors and fresh air solutions).
As a result, Andersen helped expand category relevance with architects, homeowners, and specifiers, positioning windows as a performance feature rather than a passive element. That opened new conversations (and budgets) for premium SKUs.
Each of these growth paths supports a different type of market share gain and each requires different strategies, teams, and metrics. When the growth path is clear, you can build the right engine to support it.
Strategic Implications by Growth Type
Penetration
GTM Focus: Coverage, education, onboarding
Sales Motion: Hunting & nurturing
Marketing Role: Awareness & enablement
Share Shift
GTM Focus: Differentiation, value proposition
Sales Motion: Competitive selling
Marketing Role: Proof-building & positioning
Expansion
GTM Focus: Regional/channel/vertical diversification
Sales Motion: Channel development
Marketing Role: New market entry support
TAM Growth
GTM Focus: Innovation, category leadership
Sales Motion: Evangelism, new use cases
Marketing Role: Demand creation & thought leadership
How These Growth Paths Work Together
While each lever can be pursued independently, the most successful growth strategies sequence or layer them together.
For example:
A brand might begin by improving penetration within its current dealer footprint.
As familiarity and preference grow, the company may focus on share shift, converting more competitive bids.
That momentum can support expansion into adjacent regions or product categories.
Over time, the brand might invest in TAM growth by educating specifiers on new use cases or influencing category standards.
Each growth path strengthens the others. Penetration builds the base. Share shift sharpens your edge. Expansion diversifies revenue. TAM growth future-proofs the business.
The goal isn’t to pick just one, it’s to prioritize intentionally and build sustainably.
Aligning Around the Right Lever
If your leadership team is targeting market share growth, here are a few questions to sharpen the conversation:
Are we trying to win more of what we already see, or see more of what we could win?
Is the growth coming from new customers, or greater share of existing ones?
Do we need to compete harder or increase our visibility and access?
Is the market itself fixed or can we expand it?
By answering these questions, leadership teams can align sales, marketing, operations, and product around a common path forward.
From Bold Goal to Coordinated Execution
Doubling market share is a worthy and often necessary goal, especially in a consolidating and increasingly competitive industry like building products.
But it’s not just a number to chase. It’s a signal. A prompt to ask:
What kind of growth do we want?
And what are we built to pursue next?
With a clear framework and aligned execution, “doubling market share” becomes more than a rallying cry. It becomes a roadmap.
Next up: Market Penetration. We take a deeper look at the first and most overlooked lever: market penetration. What it is, how to know when it’s the right strategy, and how marketing can make it move.